Propane Roaster, Condensation??? Airflow restriction?

[stolenchurch]

Hi- I roast on a Diedrich IR 3 propane roaster.

Tonight when I went to roast, the pilot light sparked up like normal, and then the burners lit... but within a few seconds the glass on the door of the roast cylinder starting fogging up and a few seconds later what seemed like a clean burn (looking through the site glass) got very foggy/hazy, and then the gas shut off, and attempted to light again, and few seconds later the burners lit again and then the same thing happened. There seemed to be a lot of moisture inside the front glass of the roaster drum door, and I would guess moisture/condensation causing the burners to shut off?

I took the side covers off of the roaster and tried firing it up, with the side covers off the burners stayed lit. I think attempted to put the side panels back on, when I put the second on one, the front door cover started to steam up right away and the burners went from a clean burn to a foggy burn again, I took off a cover right away and there was moisture on the side cover.

I then let the roaster heat up with the side covers off and roasted a batch. During this roast the smell of roasting was much stronger inside. During the final stage of roasting some smoke actually came out of the top bean hopper.

This then leads me to think that I have an air flow restriction either in the venting coming right out of the drum or in the chimney? Would that cause condensation as well?

Advice?

 

[Bradleysteenkamp]

Hello,

Definitly an airflow restriction of some kind. We often get condensation when warming up so it's not abnormal but it is affected by the amount of airflow going through the drum. Certainly if you are having any smoke coming out of the hopper then the airflow is not taking the correct path. Sound like the pipe work might need a good cleanout!

 

[sae]

yup, you definitely have an airflow problem! Normally this wouldn't even allow the burner to light so I'd make sure that the air sensor is hooked up and working properly so that you cannot light the burner without proper air flow.